1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an RFID tag communication system and RFID tag communication apparatus that are capable of communication by switching among a plurality of communication formats.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are known RFID (radio frequency identification) systems that perform contactless transmission and reception of information to and from RFID circuit elements that store information.
One such known RFID system is an information communication system capable of communicating with a plurality of different types of RFID tag by switching the communication format that corresponds to the respective RFID tag. This information communication system determines a priority ranking from the highest number of times each type was communicated with, and in response to an RFID tag of unknown type, it performs communication by sequentially switching among a plurality of communication formats in order from the type of highest priority ranking.
In the above-described prior art, a plurality of mutually different types of communication formats are sequentially switched by switching the communication protocol that corresponds to each communication format. However, this is no more than a scheme so that the order used when switching the communication format at equal intervals is the order of highest priority ranking, and looking within a certain fixed time period, the proportion of time occupied by each communication format is nearly equal. As a result, when the operator holds up the RFID tag and places the RFID circuit element within the communication range, for example, the probability that the communication formats will match and information scanning will be immediately completed is nearly equal for rarely-appearing communication formats that are infrequently used and for communication formats that are frequently used. Therefore, the expected value of the time until information scanning is complete after the operator holds up the RFID tag is low overall, due to a needlessly high number of communication opportunities being provided even for infrequently used communication formats, as described above. As a result, it cannot necessarily be said that wireless communication can be performed quickly and efficiently.